A staple plot device in folk and fairy tales is a king determining a suitable groom for his daughter by holding a competition of some sort (often with a rather strange task such as navigating a maze). ...

First of all, perhaps my terminology is dodgy here, but by nobleman I mean A member of a noble family, of noble birth and by lord I mean a ruler -- that is, the Duke of Somewhere would be a lord; his ...

I read once that William the conqueror was a bastard and I have heard him being referred to as William the Bastard by a beefeater on a tour in the Tower of London. I was wondering are there any other ...

I am not a history guy. But, from what I have collected from movies, TV shows and people, I see that old British society was male-dominant and there were female rights issues too. But, I also see some ...

In regards to marrying into noble houses, if a noble man marries a noble woman from a different house, I would assume one of two things happens:
1. The woman takes the man's name and the two houses ...

Apologies if the History Stackexchange is the wrong place for this question but:
In what ways could a cadet branch come into life? Why would a younger sibling in a royal or noble house start his own ...

I vaguely remember reading a story about an English king that died from drinking too much water after a hunt. I'm sorry to say that all parts of this story may be untrue…I'm not sure whether it was a ...

I recently came across this video which claims that Edward IV was probably illegitimate, effectively rendering the branch leading to the Windsors also illegitimate. That's quite a bold statement to ...

In the many colonies of the British empire, it seems that the rulers of some were known as Governors General and others were officially titled as Viceroys. Was there a practical distinction between ...

Have there been any effort, polls, referendum in Europe (especially Eastern ex-communist countries) to restore deposed monarchies, like in Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, etc.? Most Monarchies were deposed ...

After the collapse of the Byzantine Empire, what happened to the Imperial Byzantine family? Did they later establish other smaller kingdoms? Do any European Royal family trace their ancestry to them ...

Most of the royal rulers in the last 2000 years seemed to be strongly relying - as one of the sources of their power - on the notion that they hold "divine rule"/"sanction of god"/"mandate of heaven" ...

Edward VIII was King of the UK, however he abdicated because he wanted to marry a divorced woman.
Someone told me that the "real reason" was that he was trying to influence the UK government and/or ...